Hi all,
Been a while since I posted on Tinnitus Talk. I've recently had exploratory ear surgery and a subsequent stapedectomy/stapedotomy (cant remember which one) on my right ear after the doctors found evidence of otosclerosis.
Before the surgery I did have bad tinnitus in my right ear as it was my worst ear, so it's not just sprung up from no where. But I'm now 7 days post op and the tinnitus has actually been a whole lot worse than pre-surgery. It's a really harsh high pitched screech. Definitely a few ranks above what it was before.
I've browsed so many different posts by people who've had this procedure and it ranges from people going totally deaf and/or dealing with worse tinnitus the rest of their lives to people that have seen a whole load of benefit from it and decreased tinnitus.
I've currently still got the packing in there which is due to be removed on the 22nd October. I can't hear much at all so knowing how much of a benefit this has been is unclear right now. I know I haven't gone deaf in that ear at least because i can hear my finger click faintly through all the packing and I've put a speaker to my skull behind the right ear and i can hear it pretty well when transmitted directly to the cochlea... I guess the ear canal is just very much muffled right now.
I'm just looking for any post-procedure experiences (hopefully positive ones) that can set my mind at ease that in a few weeks/months my tinnitus will die down and, maybe, get better? Have any of you experienced an immediately worse tinnitus post surgery and has it lessened over time? Is it unrealistic to expect it might get better or mostly go away, considering how bad it is now? Can a stapedectomy ever truly have a positive effect on tinnitus? Just worried if I could have doomed my tinnitus to be forever worse and now there's no going back?
I want to focus on the hearing improvement which I'm remaining positive will be the case once the packing comes out, but right now all I hear is mostly silence in the right ear and a truck load of tinnitus so it's hard to think beyond that. Being in a quiet room now is even more torturous than before. Please, any experiences or realistic outlooks appreciated! I really want to hope that my tinnitus can at least return to pre-surgery levels and hopefully improve from there along with my overall hearing!
I know this is early days but I just want people's input to see if I'm going through 'the norm' and what I can expect from here.
Cheers,
James
Been a while since I posted on Tinnitus Talk. I've recently had exploratory ear surgery and a subsequent stapedectomy/stapedotomy (cant remember which one) on my right ear after the doctors found evidence of otosclerosis.
Before the surgery I did have bad tinnitus in my right ear as it was my worst ear, so it's not just sprung up from no where. But I'm now 7 days post op and the tinnitus has actually been a whole lot worse than pre-surgery. It's a really harsh high pitched screech. Definitely a few ranks above what it was before.
I've browsed so many different posts by people who've had this procedure and it ranges from people going totally deaf and/or dealing with worse tinnitus the rest of their lives to people that have seen a whole load of benefit from it and decreased tinnitus.
I've currently still got the packing in there which is due to be removed on the 22nd October. I can't hear much at all so knowing how much of a benefit this has been is unclear right now. I know I haven't gone deaf in that ear at least because i can hear my finger click faintly through all the packing and I've put a speaker to my skull behind the right ear and i can hear it pretty well when transmitted directly to the cochlea... I guess the ear canal is just very much muffled right now.
I'm just looking for any post-procedure experiences (hopefully positive ones) that can set my mind at ease that in a few weeks/months my tinnitus will die down and, maybe, get better? Have any of you experienced an immediately worse tinnitus post surgery and has it lessened over time? Is it unrealistic to expect it might get better or mostly go away, considering how bad it is now? Can a stapedectomy ever truly have a positive effect on tinnitus? Just worried if I could have doomed my tinnitus to be forever worse and now there's no going back?
I want to focus on the hearing improvement which I'm remaining positive will be the case once the packing comes out, but right now all I hear is mostly silence in the right ear and a truck load of tinnitus so it's hard to think beyond that. Being in a quiet room now is even more torturous than before. Please, any experiences or realistic outlooks appreciated! I really want to hope that my tinnitus can at least return to pre-surgery levels and hopefully improve from there along with my overall hearing!
I know this is early days but I just want people's input to see if I'm going through 'the norm' and what I can expect from here.
Cheers,
James
Member
